1. Field of the Inventive Concept
The present general inventive concept relates to computer techniques and to devices and methods of data processing, and more particularly, to systems and methods of forming help files in computer applications.
2. Description of the Related Art
Help files are widely used to provide a user of a computer system with pages of help describing the functions of a computer system so as to help the user. The pages of help, which can be provided in HTML format (CHM files), are widely used in applications of operating systems (OS), including OS Windows. Such pages of help can be implemented in the form of HTML documents having wide graphic opportunities familiar to the majority of computer users. The pages of help generally provide convenient division of the text into parts by subjects, support of cross links, and an opportunity to build-in small programs, such as Java Scripts, Visual Basic Script, and the like, to improve availability and to simplify improvement of HTML documents and construction of CHM of files.
HTML help pages can be called in the context of a current application running on the computer system. Thus, at visualization of help files, the user can see the page(s) of help, which provides the user with information describing the functions of the current application on an element of the page.
In conventional operating system environments, although the help files can represent a set of pages of help in HTML format with JavaScript programs to provide some interactivity for the pages, the text of the pages is not easily changed.
Such kinds of files of help have inconvenience in support when it is necessary to make changes to similar files of help, for example, to change all transfers of a file of help for some application (program) or when there are similar files of help for different versions of one application, since the pages of a file of help cannot dynamically change contents and cannot exchange contents with each other.
Korean published application number KR 2004-61421 discusses a method and system of formation of a file of help (i.e., help file) based on field values of the set parameter. However, such systems are not entirely satisfactory in providing sufficient efficiency, i.e. sufficient speed of execution of tasks, to enable forming help files concerning a wide set of applications and questions in a real time mode.
In order to change contents of the help file (for example, at transferring a part of the text, configuring the help file with an external parameter, changing contents from one page of help to another) it is necessary to make changes to the main program (application) and to recompile the main program, thus increasing laboriousness and reducing the speed of operation of the computer system.
U.S. Patent Application Publication number 2005/0125729 is directed to a help file generating method and apparatus in which configuration data is recorded in a separate file of adjustment, and the help file, which is in the form of code HTML, is formed based on the configuration data.